Germany’s Brenntag acquires Australian AdBlue distributor

16 May 2013 13:38[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Germany-based chemical distribution firm Brenntag on Thursday announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the distribution business of Blue Sky Environment (Blue Sky) headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.

Financial and completion date details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Blue Sky is active as a distributor of urea-based diesel emissions fluid AdBlue that transforms harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles and trucks into water vapour and nitrogen.

The product is the operating fluid used with these vehicles equipped with selective catalytic reduction technology to comply with the Euro 5 and 6 emissions standards, Brenntag said.

Blue Sky has a national storage and dispensing network across Australia, Brenntag added.

“This acquisition offers us the possibility to benefit from the growth perspectives in the Australian AdBlue market,” said Henri Nejade, president and CEO of Brenntag Asia Pacific.

“It enables us to expand our capabilities and to establish a major AdBlue position throughout Australia,” he added.

Brenntag said the Australian AdBlue market is still at an early stage as the Euro 5 standard only became a requirement about two years ago and is expected to grow significantly in the next years.

“Furthermore the upgrade of truck fleets to AdBlue is expected to continue in the following years due to the implementation of the Euro 6 standard in Australia in 2014,” it added.

For the financial year 2013, Blue Sky expects sales of Australian dollar (A$) 5.6m ($5.5m, €4.3m), gross profit of A$2.2m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of A$1.3m.